NGOs Expect Agreements on Debt and Corporations

Civil society groups attending the Summit are not overly optimistic about any major decisions at the final week starting today, but have made it clear they would be happy to walk away with a deal pertaining to corporate accountability and debt relief for the world’s poorer nations.

Promising to keep the pressure up on official delegations, the two groups also took heart from a public signals by Sweden in recent days to back any efforts to reform the controversial European Union farm subsidies programme that have so irked developing nations.

“We were very happy with this signal from the Swedes and sometimes it only takes one to break away from the pack for others to follow. We hope this is the case, “said Gordon Bispham, a spokesperson for the umbrella International Steering Group (ISG) of the Global People’s Forum.

Europe’s farm subsidy system, worth in excess of 300 billion dollars, has been among the contentious issues at this and other key United Nations meetings that have sought to address some of the world’s most disputed problems at the behest of a plethora of developing nations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Bispham said the spirits of activists have been significantly lifted by the move of the Swedes, in a week of negotiations that at times resembled an exercise in futility.

“But if we can manage to get something firm and concrete on corporate accountability and debt relief many of us and even some government people, would consider this conference to be a success, “ he said.

NGO groups devoted several hours over the weekend fine tuning positions to lobby governments and heads of states on issues ranging from climate change to good governance.

Bispham said there were clear indications at the weekend that the governance issue – which development countries see as an interference in their internal affairs - would be carried forward to the next round of negotiations because of serious problems of definition and interpretation.

He said months of attempts to come up with a definition at the Cotonou negotiations involving the EU and more than 70 of its former colonies in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific boiled down to nothing more than clauses calling for governments to move to eradicate corruption and to put good administrative policies in place. It is not the easiest of issues to define he said.

The Nasrec side of the WSSD is also hoping for agreement on energy and trade, but these remain contentious just hours before most heads of state arrive in Johannesburg for the summit.

Bispham said that NGO's have been seeing the invisible hand of the corporate lobby